AMD has announced it is launching its Radeon Image Sharpening (RIS) image enhancement system for selected models of its previous-generation Radeon RX 400- and 500-series graphics cards, after first making it available as a Radeon RX 5700-series exclusive.

Designed to boost visual fidelity without harming performance, AMD's Radeon Image Sharpening (RIS) launched as a exclusive feature of the company's Radeon RX 5700 family of graphics cards. Designed primarily for use with GPU-driven upscaling, Radeon Image Sharpening is claimed to use a clever contrast-adaptive algorithm to increase image crispness and clarity - particularly where post-processing effects have softened the image - with 'virtually no impact on gaming performance.' Unlike similar offerings from rival Nvidia, RIS requires no special support from a game's developers - it's supported in any DirectX 12 or Vulkan game on Windows 10 automatically.

Now, AMD has confirmed it is making RIS available to older-generation graphics cards. The updated RIS now supports the Radeon RX 470, RX 480, RX 570, RX 580, and RX 590 graphics cards, on top of the Radeon RX 5700 family. There's one one minor catch: Where the Radeon RX 5700 version of RIS works on DirectX 9, DirectX 12, and Vulkan, the RX 400- and RX 500-series version only supports DirectX 12 and Vulkan.

'AMD continues to democratise access to cutting-edge technology,' claims a company spokesperson of the release. 'From first time mainstream gamers to those looking for the best experiences in AAA 1080p gaming, the Radeon RX 500 and 400 series GPUs that now offer RIS allow gamers to immerse themselves in hyper-real, complex visual worlds while maintaining fluid framerates.'

The new RIS functionality is available as part of the latest Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition update, which can be downloaded from the company's support portal.